SAN DIEGO — Months after San Diego County supervisors voted to bar sheriff’s deputies from cooperating with federal immigration officials, the sheriff went before the board this week and stood firm on her decision to continue the limited cooperation she can provide under state law.

“My policies are based on public safety,” Sheriff Kelly Martinez said during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. “I’m following state law, not crossing any lines when it comes to federal immigration enforcement.”

The sheriff’s comment came in response to a question from the public during an annual forum for the department to share data about its cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That forum, which ran about two hours, is required by state law, which for the last several years has narrowed to further curtail working with ICE.

According to data the department shared at Tuesday’s forum, 30 people were transferred from the jails into ICE custody last year — people who had either specific convictions on their record or a federal warrant for their arrest. Some had both.

In addition, the department notified more than 1,000 people in county jails that ICE wanted to know their release date, and that it would comply with that request.

Martinez said her policy is “based on the foundation of representing the voices of victims, as well as ensuring our communities not only feel safe, but that they are safe.” She noted that the people involved in the policy are “deportable by ICE if found in the community.”

“I believe it is far safer for ICE to receive individuals who meet qualifications in the jail setting, therefore not causing ICE to be in the community, seeking these individuals and potentially contacting family members and other members of the community as collateral,” she said.

As federal immigration crackdowns and fears of mass deportations roil the nation, dozens of speakers at the forum implored Martinez to abandon all cooperation with ICE.

Paulina Reyes-Perrariz, managing attorney with Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told the board that “continued entanglement between local law enforcement and federal immigration is not good policy.”

“We are living in unprecedented times where the federal government is openly disobeying court orders to (do) whatever fits their agenda and using scary tactics to make us turn on our neighbors,” she said. “I bring up what’s happening in the national level in order to highlight why the sheriff’s continued refusal to comply with local policy is so dangerous at this moment.”

Immigration attorney Crystal Felix said the Sheriff’s Office’s actions “are harming our community despite the clear state laws meant to protect immigrants.”

In December, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution that calls for barring deputies from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including transferring immigrants in its custody.

Martinez immediately pushed back, saying the law allows the sheriff to set jail policies and that her policy follows what is permissible under California law.

Under state law, local authorities can cooperate with ICE if the immigrant in question has been convicted of particular felonies, or if there is a warrant or probable cause determination by a judge that there is a federal criminal immigration violation.

The data the Sheriff’s Office shared during the forum ran through the end of 2024, before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, whose administration has ratcheted up immigration enforcement and, advocates say, fear within immigrant communities.

Data on the department’s interactions with ICE this year was not immediately available Wednesday.

Even though the data provided Tuesday precedes the crackdown, it shows a very small year-over-year uptick in the number of people transferred from San Diego County jails to ICE custody — up from 25 in 2023.

The annual number hit a low of 18 such transfers during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, when jail populations fell dramatically.

Still, last year’s 30 transfers is steeply down from the 1,143 people transferred to immigration agents in 2017 — which was before a series of state law changes heavily restricted ICE’s reach into the jails.

In 2018, after the California Values Act — commonly referred to as Senate Bill 54, SB 54 or the “sanctuary state law” — went into effect, the number of transfers dropped to 266. The law limits the involvement of local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities.

Then there are the people who don’t meet the threshold to be transferred to ICE, but ICE is still interested in them.

Last year, ICE asked for the anticipated release dates of more than 1,200 people in local jails. The department determined that about 200 did not meet the threshold for it to share that information.

But the rest were notified that ICE wanted to know their anticipated release date, and that once that exact date had been determined, the department would share that information with ICE.

The number of people whose release dates were to be shared with ICE dipped during the height of the pandemic. The numbers over the last two years are roughly comparable to pre-COVID numbers.

In addition, the department notified 188 people in jail last year that it intended to call ICE on the day of their slated release.

The department cautioned that all it does it make the telephone call. It does not schedule or coordinate the person’s release with federal immigration agents.

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